The Moscow metro's press service on Monday denied an earlier report by city-connected news service M24 that passengers would soon have to swipe their tickets when they go through exit turnstiles.
The press service said in a statement released Monday evening that "this information does not correspond to reality, and the implementation of such a system is not planned." Repeated calls to the press service went unanswered.
M24 had posted an interview on Monday with the head of the metro's newly created passenger service department, Andrei Filatov, who was quoted as saying that the metro would implement ticket swipes at exits as part of a program to determine the movements of commuters in order to build up a loyal customer base.
"We want to know where each person entered and exited, how much time they were inside the metro, where they went and what they bought," Filatov was quoted as saying. "We need to create an automized system of recording passenger data," he explained, adding that the metro needs to "fight for income."
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